http://www.metrolic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/stephan.jpg Born in Oxford on 8 Jan 1942, brought up in St Albans. Father a research biologist, mother a radical free-thinker
Labelled a swot at public school, he liked horse riding, rowing, classical music and debating
- A Brief History of Time - the 1988 layman's guide to cosmology - has sold 10 million copies worldwide
- Discovered "Hawking radiation", where black holes leak energy and fade to nothing, and "theory of everything" suggesting universe evolves according to well-defined laws
- Popular ambassador for science, he lent his synthesised voice to various recordings and appeared in BBC comedy Red Dwarf, The Simpsons and Star Trek
- In 2001, he claimed mankind could be wiped out by a genetically engineered "doomsday" virus
- In an interview with the New Scientist ahead of his 70th birthday, he said he spent most of the day thinking about women, who he says are "a complete mystery"
great minds... (ragnar, hawkwind i mean hawkking I MEAN-)